


Collecting

by THRILLHO



Series: Broten Holi-Daze [1]
Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Halloween, Halloween Costumes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 19:00:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21258080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/THRILLHO/pseuds/THRILLHO
Summary: Despite having many years, Goten never fulfilled his obligation to Bulla. It's at the forefront of his mind now more than ever since it's Halloween again and he can't help but notice the attractiveness of the Saiyan princess.





	Collecting

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Any Questions?](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21196802) by [rogue_1102](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rogue_1102/pseuds/rogue_1102). 

> This story is inspired by Any Questions? by rogue_1102. Things will make more sense here if you read that first since it's their idea, I just played around with it.

Goten didn’t appreciate being used as a pawn in the negotiations between brother and sister, and/or father and daughter. Therefore, he had taken it upon himself to delay, delay, delay until the frequency in which Bulla kept asking went from once a week to once a month, until it disappeared altogether with no tears from Bulla. No one ever thought Goten had the mind for intrigue and he was proud of himself that he was able to renege on the promise Trunks had made for him. 

It had been years since that particular Halloween incident and no one had thought about it for years, especially not the underhanded dealings that went on behind closed doors. Goten doubted anyone even remembered. He was quite surprised that he even remembered, if he had to guess the whole thing petered out within a year; however, these many years later he was starkly reminded every time he saw his best friend’s nineteen year old sister saunter in and out of Capsule Corp. 

“Dammit, Goten!” Trunks said. “Why can’t we just be on the same team so I can actually play instead of you killing me all the time?”

“Because it wouldn’t be as fun for me,” Goten replied. Trunks tossed his controller to the side, visibly frustrated.

“How pathetic is it?” Trunks grumbled. “We’re guys in our twenties, it’s Halloween and we’re here in my parents’ house playing video games. We should be out on the town, living it up. Our parents are having more fun than we are.”

Goten was tempted to point out it was Trunks’ dour attitude since breaking up with Mai that led  _ him  _ to declare that he didn’t want to do anything and Goten being the ever loyal best friend that he was, refused to ditch Trunks and go have fun on his own, a decision he was regretting at the moment. Video games were no fun when they were no challenges and Trunks sucked at first person shooter games.

“Oh great,” Trunks said as the sounds of loud giggling permeated the house. “The babies are even going out tonight.”

“I wouldn’t exactly call them babies,” Goten countered, “Marron is twenty and Bulla is nineteen.”

“Well, they will always be babies to me,” Trunks retorted in keeping with his pissy mood. Marron and Bulla certainly weren’t babies to Goten.

“You know, it’s not too late for you two to get costumes and come with us,” a cool female voice said, coming out of nowhere. Trunks and Goten both just about jumped out of their skin.

“Don’t do that!” Trunks said to the clearly amused blue haired girl. “Normal people make sounds and don’t hide their energy when they enter a room. You look totally gross by the way,” Trunks couldn’t resist the dig. 

“Wait until you get a load of me,” another voice came out of nowhere causing both Trunks and Goten to fall over screaming. Marron had popped out of nowhere wearing white clown makeup and a red and black harlequin outfit complete with hat.

The girls high-fived each other, laughing and congratulating each other on a job well done.

After calming down a bit, Goten looked to where Bulla was standing and willed himself not to groan aloud. She was wearing a skin tight catsuit that left little to the imagination in addition to the fact that she hadn’t even zipped it all the way up. He barely even registered the domino mask and cat ears.

“Are you guys just going to be lame and play video games all night?” Bulla asked with a hint of disdain. She cocked her hip out which further emphasized the curves of her body that Goten wished didn’t exist if only for his own peace of mind at this moment.

“Yes,” Trunks said and pouted before Goten could come up with anything. Why did she have to see him acting like a codependent shut in?

“C’mon, you’re only young once unless you use the dragon balls,” Marron said. “What do you think Goten?”

Goten cringed and said quietly to Marron, “Wrong thing to say.” He pointed out the hard faced Trunks who looked right about ready to shut down. Marron must have realized her mistake because her face fell and she looked extremely apologetic.

“As they say, the best way to get over someone is to get under someone,” Marron said trying to bring a little bit of levity to the situation. “Why don’t you two come with us? The best wingman is a wingwoman.”

Bulla gave Marron a  _ look  _ that Goten couldn’t decipher but if he had to guess, he figured she probably wasn’t too thrilled with Marron inviting them along to her night out. That would only make his job that much harder.

_ Please say yes, Trunks.  _ Goten was practically salivating thinking about fully unzipping Bulla’s impossibly tight catsuit. 

“Don’t be such a fuddy duddy, puddin’,” Marron said in an exaggerated ditzy voice and winked at Trunks.

“Yeah but we don’t have costumes,” Trunks finally pointed out after a few minutes.  _ Yes! He doesn’t hate the idea! _

“Did you forget we’re the richest people on Earth? One phone call and we can get you two killer costumes, or failing that, I don’t think it would take too long to gather the dragon balls, hmm...that might even be quicker, mom always keeps a few around...” Bulla drifted off, holding her chin in contemplation. 

“Alright, fine!” Trunks threw up his hands and relented. Internally, Goten was basking in the victory but outwards he tried to seem as nonchalant as possible.

“Yeah, that’s cool with me but what do we go as?” Goten asked trying not to appear excited.

The girls looked at each other conspiratorially, “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that, we’ll take care of it,” Marron insisted.

“No way we’re letting you choose our costumes. You’ll probably pick something stupid and embarassing like what you’re wearing Bulla. You know, it wouldn’t kill you to cover up,” Trunks said.

Bulla got a mischievous glint in her eye, “Okay Trunks, let’s make a deal. If I beat you at this shooty game, Marron and I get to pick out your costumes. If you win, I’ll change into something more attuned to your conservative sensibilities.”

“Ha! Even I’ll admit I suck at this game,” Trunks said. “Nice try, you’re going to have to beat Goten, he’s at least an average player.”

Some of the light went out of Bulla’s eyes but she agreed nonetheless. “So does this mean we have a deal?” Trunks nodded.

“Hey, I never agreed!” Goten said. Did that ever really matter to Trunks though? Using Goten as a bargaining chip had always been typical of Trunks. Plus, this bet was a lose-lose for him. Either he had to wear whatever fruity costume idea Marron and Bulla came up with or Bulla would have to change into a more ‘conservative’ costume and Goten didn’t want that either. 

Goten took Trunks aside, “Is it really that important to you that Bulla cover up?”

“Not really, but if I have a chance, I’m going to take it. Besides, this will be a win for both of us,” Trunks insisted. “I mean, you can’t possibly be happy with her costume.” Goten’s eyes couldn’t help but return to the Saiyan Princess, arms crossed and looking pouty, her arms crossed under her breasts pushing them up, leaving less to the imagination than there was before. He didn’t know how long he spent looking her but he noticed the uptake in the corner of her lips as she stared right back at him followed by Trunks snapping his fingers in his ears.

“Oh, god,” Trunks groaned. “Now you definitely have to play for our win. You better not throw it.” Trunks then physically led Goten to the couch and plunked him down, not really giving him a choice to be a party to the bet.

_ Why couldn’t she have just negotiated a kiss from me? That’s a win-win for Goten. _

“Sorry about this, princess,” Goten said preemptively while the game was loading, “But you’re not putting me in a fairy costume.”

“Damn, I’m going to have to think of something new since you already guessed it,” she responded cheekily and smiled at him causing Goten’s heart to beat a few ticks faster.

The countdown on the screen began and Goten was ready. 3...2...1…

* * *

“Ow!” Goten couldn’t help his exclamation of pain when Trunks punched him. “I’m sorry,” he said rubbing his arm. “I didn’t know she was that good! Besides, shouldn’t you have known? You’ve lived with her the past nineteen years.”

“Whatever, what’s done is done,” Trunks sighed. “Let’s just hope they didn’t pick out something humiliating,” Trunks gestured to the garment bags hanging in front of them. They had been labeled with each of their names. “They must have planned this, how else do you think they got these so fast?”

Goten hesitated, “Do you think they’re couples’ costumes?” He just hoped he’d get to be the guy, Trunks would make a better girl anyway. He stared nervously at the one with his name on it. “They’ve got to be matching somehow. Why else would they make sure we got the right ones?”

“We’ve just got to deal with it,” Trunks said firmly. “And if they’re that bad then we just bow out.” Trunks unzipped his garment bag and pulled out a purple suit. “At least it’s not a dress,” he said and went to his en suite bathroom to put it on. “You can change out here, Goten.”

Goten went to his own garment bag and unzipped it with his eyes shut, only daring to take a peak with one eye. What he first saw was something long and black that didn’t look like pants.  _ Oh god, it’s a dress! I am the girl!  _ Goten despaired. Goten gulped pulling out more of the garment, no, it wasn’t a dress, it was a cape with a cowl attached. There was more, a grey bodysuit, a pair of boots, a yellow utility belt. He let out a breath in relief and smiled. He had figured out who he was supposed to be. 

Hope flared in his chest as he undressed. If he was right about Bulla’s costume and she picked this one out for him then that meant…

He was interrupted from his thoughts when the door slammed open and Trunks came sauntering out of his bathroom with a spin. “Purple is definitely my color,” he said popping his collar.

“Yeah, but what about orange and green?” Goten couldn’t help but notice the clashing shirt, vest and tie. 

Trunks shrugged, “I can make anything work.” He looked up at Goten who had stripped down to his underwear and hadn’t had the chance to put anything else on yet. Trunks scoffed, “Goten, quit wasting time. They’ve been waiting for us long enough.”

“Now who’s eager to go,” Goten said shrugging on his bodysuit.

“Can you blame me? I look great in a suit,” Trunks said before leaving the room. 

Quickly, Goten changed into the rest of the outfit. He took a few minutes for himself to pose in front of the mirror. “I am vengeance. I am the night,” he said in the deepest, gruffest voice he could muster and laughed to himself.

“Goten, hurry up!” he heard a muffled voice shout from behind the walls. He couldn’t tell if it was Marron or Bulla but either way he took it as his cue to join the others.

When he joined the others in full regalia, he happened upon the scene of Marron and Trunks arguing. 

“No one is going to know who you are without it. People won’t even think you’re dressed up, just that you’re a walking fashion disaster,” Marron said.

Trunks gasped in offense.

“Trunks stop being a baby. Besides, we won the bet which means we get to choose your costumes and this is part of the ensemble,” Bulla interjected. Trunks crossed his arms and huffed and sat in the chair Marron had set up. 

His grand entrance spoiled, Goten just planned to sit and wait unnoticed in the shadows in the spirit of his character until Marron was done with the final touches to Trunks’ costume. 

“Lookin’ good, Goten,” Bulla said holding up her hand in the ‘OK’ sign and ruining his plan.

“Thank you, citizen,” he said in the deep voice he had tested out in Trunks room.

“See, you had nothing to worry about. Do you really think you could have come up with anything better?”

“If it were up to Trunks, I would probably end up being the sidekick,” Goten said in his normal voice.

Bulla laughed, music to Goten’s ears, and the two made small talk but neither of them acknowledged how their costumes complemented each other. 

“Ta da!” Marron said, drawing Goten and Bulla’s attention to the chair where a deranged looking Trunks was sitting. Marron had sprayed Trunks’ hair green and caked his face in white makeup and red lipstick.

“Well done!” Bulla got up in excitement and gleefully clapped her hands. “Now we’re all ready!” She took it upon herself to grab Goten and pull him out of the house, followed by Trunks and Marron.

“Uh, where are we going?” Goten asked realizing he and Trunks never found out where they were headed, “Bar? Night club? Party?”

“One of the guys from my psych class is throwing a party with his roommates,” Bulla said and Goten’s heart sunk.

“A college party?!” Trunks objected and stopped moving. “Goten and I are way past the age of partying with college kids.”

“Trunks, I doubt anyone is going to ask for ID, and you Saiyan freaks don’t physically age past twenty-two,” Marron pointed out.

“Yeah, and no one considers twenty-four and twenty-five that old...but I might,” Bulla added, and Goten’s hopes sunk even further. “Would you consider someone from nineteen to twenty-two too young to go out with?” Bulla asked the guys.

“No one younger than twenty!” Trunks declared seemingly on board. “I can’t go out with someone younger than my little sister.”

Bulla looked at Goten expectantly and he felt put on the spot.  _ How do I answer this?  _ “How old is too old for you, Bulla?” Goten opted to answer her question with a question. 

“I guess like Trunks said, I can’t go out with someone older than my big brother so twenty-four is my limit,” she replied smoothly.  _ I’m twenty-four!  _ Goten was back in high spirits and luckily for Goten, Bulla didn’t push further for an answer from him.

“So that’s settled,” Marron said, “There will be someone there for everyone, we’ve wasted enough time, let’s go!”

Goten looked around, unsure of how they were going to get there, “So whose car are we taking, and I guess who is willing to be the designated driver? Or are we going to do a rideshare thing?”

“Screw that, we’re flying,” Bulla said and took off before anyone could say anything else. Marron quickly followed suit, leaving the boys to shrug and follow after them. 

“You didn’t get to pick but you should have been the man of steel, Goten. Flight kinda goes with the costume,” Trunks said as they caught up with the girls.

Goten resisted the urge to laugh at how ridiculous Trunks looked, he was literally a flying villainous clown. 

They followed the girls’ descent to somewhere secluded and right away Goten could tell which was the house party. There was music blasting along with certain  _ smells _ , indicative of a college party.

No way around it, Goten fully appreciated the choice of costumes of the girls here, he was pretty sure he just saw a girl pass by in straight up lingerie. He loved Halloween. 

Trunks eyeline followed the lingerie model and turned to Marron and put an arm over her shoulder, “Now how about you fulfill your promise and be my wingwoman like you promised?”

Marron picked up his arm and threw it off her, “Fine, but let’s get a drink first,” she said. “And don’t touch me, you want to appear available,” she added.

The two then walked off with Trunks ignoring Marron’s advice and keeping his arm on her shoulders, leaving Goten and Bulla alone. 

“Drink?” Bulla asked.

“Sure,” Goten said, relieved she came up with something. Truth be told, he was feeling a little nervous around her. Had she been throwing hints all night? Had she  _ not  _ been throwing hints all night? One did not ruin lifelong friendships over a whim. 

“So I guess things are going well for you at school? At least socially?” Goten asked Bulla not knowing what else to say. The mojo his costume gave him had worn off and he was doing it again, becoming tongue tied around Bulla much like he had the past year.

“You could say that,” Bulla said, grabbing beer bottles for each of them. “Word has gotten around I’m one of the heirs to Capsule Corp, lots of fake friends coming out of the woodwork.” She sounded more amused than bitter though.

“Is that so?” Goten took a sip of beer in an attempt to give him a few seconds to think of a better response. “Maybe they aren’t fake, maybe they see how awesome you are?”  _ Was that lame? It seems kind of lame.  _

Bulla tapped her chin with her index finger, putting on an exaggerated show of thinking. Goten thought she looked impossibly cute.

“I am getting offers for lots of dates. Think I should say yes to some then?” 

_ NO!  _ Goten wanted to blurt out but he could by her impish expression that she was just putting him on. Two could play at that game.

“Maybe, you never know what you’re missing out on,” Goten pointed to guy in a low effort costume—a tropical shirt and a lei of flowers—doing a keg stand with his buddies cheering him on.

“Now there’s a man!” Bulla playfully gushed. She pretended to rearrange her hair, “How do I look? Do you think I have a chance?” she said fretfully. Once again, Goten took the opportunity to appreciate what she was wearing.

“You know what, no. He looks entirely way too sophisticated for you,” he said. Keg stand guy let out a huge blech immediately followed by a “Woo!” and “Yeah!”s and high-fives from his friends.

Bulla wistfully sighed, “I think you’re right, he’s too classy for me. Guess I’ll have to look in the gutter where I belong.” She paused for a moment, moving closer to him and looked right at him, “Or maybe I’ll have better luck in the backwoods of Mount Paozu?”

Goten froze and forgot how to breathe for a moment. Next thing he knew, he was clenching his beer bottle so hard that it shattered in his hand. He wasn’t hurt but he did leave a mess. 

“Really, Goten?” Bulla said in frustration. She led him by the hand to the kitchen pushing through people to find something to clean up the mess he made. 

“Here,” Bulla handed him a dish towel, “You better get to it before someone in a caveman costume steps in it and sues the poor host.”

“Bulla! You made it!” Goten heard a voice, a  _ male  _ voice, say from behind him. He felt himself shoved to the side while a guy in a firefighter costume went to hug Bulla. Goten didn’t have it in him to interrupt whatever was going on there so he retreated to where he had broken the bottle and tried to pick up all the glass he could. He wanted to launch himself into the sun, he ruined a perfectly good moment. 

After disposing of all the glass, he returned to where he left Bulla only to find she had gone off somewhere else, he used his senses to find her energy but when he found her his heart sank not for the first time that night. She was now surrounded by a group of firefighters basking in the attention, squeezing one guy’s bicep.  _ Whatever, mine are probably harder.  _

Goten then opted to find Trunks to see what kind of luck he was having and if Marron was all that effective at finding him a girl, maybe she’d be able to work something out for Goten seeing as though it seemed he was wrong about Bulla. 

A scan of the crowd didn’t find Trunks so once again, Goten had to use his senses to find his friends. They were somewhere together which likely meant Trunks wasn’t having luck in the girl department either; however, once he found them he had no desire to join them. They were currently making out with Marron on Trunks’ lap with Trunks being incredibly handsy. Goten quickly averted his eyes since he found the sight so gross.  _ That’s bound to end well. _

Wasn’t tonight supposed to be fun? Goten looked around the crowd and saw the gleeful laughing people having fun and felt incredibly lonely all of a sudden. He was ready to head out. He’d message Bulla and confront Trunks later about why he left. Not for the first time, Goten was glad he was his own transportation, but as he turned to leave, he felt a delicate hand fall on his shoulder.

“Sorry about that, I didn’t mean to ditch you,” Bulla said. “It just took me a while to get away from Red and his friends.”  _ What bad mood?  _ Goten instantly felt great. This party was turning out to be fun after all.

“Could have fooled me. It looked like you were having fun,” Goten said returning to the pretext of playfulness they had been engaged in earlier.

“Yeah, but that was before they realized how lowbrow I am,” she joked. She looked behind Goten to see that he was near the door. “You weren’t planning on leaving, were you?” Bulla asked suspiciously with an eyebrow raised.

“And if I was?”

“Well, I can’t let you leave without collecting first,” Bulla said reducing the space between them. 

“Collecting?” Goten was confused, “Collecting what?”

“Collecting on the deal I made with Trunks precisely thirteen years ago to keep my mouth shut about a certain prank,” she said moving closer to him, her face was now a mere few centimeters from his. “And then later to spill about said prank to a certain grumpy pointy haired Saiyan.”

“Guess I have no choice then, your dad did say a man needs to fulfill his responsibilities,” Goten had remembered the old man saying that when he first learned about this ‘obligation’ of his. 

“Any chance I might be able to negotiate for a greater number?” Bulla asked with heavy lidded eyes.

“Nope, you just get one.”  _ Goten! You idiot! What are you saying? _

Bulla shrugged, “Better make sure it lasts a while then.”

_ Happy Halloween to me! _

**Author's Note:**

> This was actually incredibly easy for me to whack out in a day but it's not usually the type of story I enjoy writing and look what happened, it practically wrote itself! I hope you enjoyed the simple read.


End file.
